Japan’s $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund has decided to implement a multi-manager strategy through a fund-of-funds to pursue global infrastructure fund investments and co-investments.
GPIF has appointed Nomura Asset Management Co. as its gatekeeper, and Pantheon as their fund of funds manager. This is GPIF’s second appointment for its global infrastructure mandate; the first was made on Jan. 12 when it announced the decision to appoint Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company as the gatekeeper and StepStone Infrastructure & Real Assets as the fund of funds manager for its global infrastructure mandate (core strategy).
This announcement follows the RFP launched in April 2017 to implement an alternative investments “multi-manager” strategy through fund of funds in pursuit of fund investments and co-investments. On Dec. 19, 2017, GPIF announced Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation as their investment manager to implement alternative investments through a fund of funds real estate mandate (domestic core strategy).
It is expected that GPIF will announce its overseas real estate fund of funds manager soon. As GPIF has stated, it considers global real estate markets divided by U.S. and non-U.S. regions as its orientation for RFPs for alternative fund managers. There is a chance that GPIF will announce appointments of multiple fund of funds managers and gatekeepers for global real estate investment.
In additional news, GPIF recently reported a 3.9 percent investment return for third quarter 2017, according to the pension fund’s third quarter of fiscal year 2017 report. GPIF reported a 3.54 percent return in first quarter and a 2.99 percent return in second quarter. The pension fund’s fiscal year ends on March 31.
